Electric organ may have caused church fire

A church organ may have been the cause of a fire on Monday morning in the 150-year-old Catholic parish church in Kenmare.

While investigators have to finalise their inquiries, parish volunteer Billy Bevan, who is associated closely with Holy Cross Church and who is a former firefighter with the Kenmare service, said it appeared the fire started in the organ, which is electrical and had been plugged in.

The fire, which was spotted at 9am, spread rapidly, but because of the quick response from the fire service, in both Kenmare and Sneem (they were on the scene within minutes), the worst of the damage was confined to the front-door area.